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Remarkably well, thank you. The bougainvilla and gerbera daises that went dormant in the summer heat are thriving (and blooming) right now. As are the cyclamen and pansies I bought a month ago. I like Texas.
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Thanksgiving was spent with S.'s family and while it was nice, it was not like being with my family. (Although this year, being with my family would have included being with my Dad, who paid a drunken, belligerent visit to Chicago...so all things considered I guess I got the good end of the deal.)
Getting to S.'s hometown involved detouring around flooded-out portions of Hwy. 183 - the water was right up to the road even through the detour. A full moon was shining down, reflecting the water and giving it all a very still and eerie feeling. The Guadalupe river crested on Thanksgiving night, almost stranding us at S.'s father's house. We had to take a wide loop out of and back into town to get back to his mom's house.
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Some random notes from the rest of the weekend:
--The paternal side of S.'s family is populated by some of the best-looking kids I've ever seen.
--We saw a baffling sign on the side of the road in Rockport that said simply "Also Elk Jerky". (For those of you who would like to make some elk jerky, here's a recipe.)
--We took a drive through a state park in which almost everyone was camping in an RV and had satellite dishes attached to their campers. PUSSIES! YOU ARE NOT CAMPING!!! Park in your damn driveways and leave the campsites to real campers. Err...where was I? By far the strangest thing we saw in the campground was this:
. Camping in the bigrig! Wahoooooo!
--Fields full of cowbirds, which are not actually cowbirds but cattle egrets.
--"Don't bite again, goddamit!" - words uttered by a young boy to his puppy; overheard as S. and I walked past his yard.
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In other news, we have an owlet living under the eaves in front of the house. Last night S. and I were sitting on the couch and we could hear his soft little hoots. I have no idea when owls leave the nest, but he is tiny and I'm worried about him. One of S.'s cats has taken to sitting on the steps under the owlet's perch and I'm pretty sure if we could see into his head we'd see him picturing a roasted owl on a plate with a side of peas.
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